Pre-CNY gathering

A friend of mine kindly invited us to a party with about 15 or so other people on Saturday, sort of like a pre Chinese New Year party. As it was a pot-luck party, I brought along the closest thing I could find to a pot – a bucket of KFC, seen here in the picture.

Everyone else didn’t seem to have understood the concept of the pot thing.

(Joke)

This was the vegetarian curry, cooked by one of the guests. Obviously there are no prices listed on these dishes. It would have been slightly impolite (but probably expected) of me to have asked them how much their dish costs.

Siew yoke, or roast pork brought by another guest. As we arrived about an hour after the party, most of the food had gone cold, but this pork was still very crunchy despite being cold. The meat was flavoursome, and just salty enough for the taste to come through.

Green beans stir-fried in something. Again, didn’t do the whole interview thing with the chef, just kinda had a taste and tried to figure out what it was made with. I reckon something along the lines of yellow bean paste or similar.

Grilled pork marinated in spices, done by the host of the part. This was very flavoursome, and had been marinating for a while prior to cooking. Although it was slightly cold by the time I tasted it, it was still nice.

Curry chicken, again cooked by the host of the party. He said that he’d made this with a Malaysian curry spice powder, brand A1.

Grilled lamb (with some mint?) marinated in spices and once again, cooked by the host of the party. It does kind of seem as though he did most of the cooking.

Stir fried okra (ladies fingers) in sambal, prepared by a guest who’d somehow managed to get ready for the party, cook this dish x 2, and get to the party by train in slightly over an hour. I had lots of this, done really well in terms of texture, and the taste was authentic too.

Sweet and sour fish, prepared by surprise surprise, the host of the party. Perhaps this was not a pot luck after all and we misunderstood the invitation. This was one of my favourite dishes that day, the fish was very crunchy and the sauce was just nice to balance out the crunchiness of the fish.

Our contribution to the pot-luck party, this bucket of fried chicken. All in all, we had a great time, meeting people we’d never met before, and just having lots of food.